Analysis of operation and maintenance of giant's tank scheme

Abstract

Giant's tank is located in Mannar district of the Northern Province in Sri Lanka. This tank has 10 sluices, 3 taking off from the inlet channel and the balance 7 from the tank. This scheme consists 162 minor tanks which are balancing reservoirs for the irrigable area of 24,438 acres. During dry periods, tailend farmers faced lot of water problems due to cascade type tanks distribution systems and improper maintenance of the scheme, mainly due to the shortage of funds. Few year s ago the Government of Sri Lanka decided to recover some of the Operation and Maintenance Cost from the farmers. It was estimated that the cost of operating and maintaining a major irrigation scheme is about, Rs. 200 per acre. The government of Sri Lanka requested the farmers to pay Rs. 100 per acre and the government agreed to provide the balance. The government plan" was to increase the farmer’s contribution by Rs. 20 each year for five years. According to this plan after the fifth year total cost of operating and maintaining the systems will be met out of the farmer’s contribution. However the O & M fee collection was not successful. The farmer’s contribution dropped annually. As such the government decided to keep the farmer s contribution the initial Rs. 100 level. One of the reasons for not paying the O & M fee is that the farmer's feel that the irrigation water is not equally distributed. This report suggests an alternate way to distribute the cost of operation and, maintenance.